Curve Digital hires Ben Payne as VP Global Marketing

05 Aug 2019

Multi-award-winning publisher Curve Digital has today announced a significant new hire as it reveals that Ben Payne will be joining the company next month in the newly-created VP Global Marketing role.

Ben’s remit will be to lead the marketing department to deliver truly global marketing campaigns for both new releases and portfolio titles as the company enters its most exciting period to date.

With recent launches such as American Fugitive and For The King proving enormously successful, Curve is gearing up to publish the just-announced adorable world builder Autonauts, the forthcoming official game of the hit Netflix show Narcos – and a host of top secret titles which will continue to further the firm’s aspiration of becoming the leading publisher of digital games in the UK.

A videogaming marketeer with huge industry experience, Ben’s most recent role was Head of Esports at McLaren Racing Limited, where he created and executed McLaren’s esports strategy. In July 2018, launched McLaren Shadow Project, the biggest, most open and diverse racing esports program on the planet, delivering over 525,000 entrants globally with total digital reach of 130M.

Prior to McLaren, Ben spent six years at Microsoft, first as Product Marketing Manager 3rd Party – Xbox EMEA, then Senior Partnerships and Experiential Manager – Xbox & Microsoft Band EMEA and latterly as Windows and PSM Marketing Manager – Global.

“This is a significant hire for us,” says Simon Byron, Publishing Director, Curve Digital. “Ben’s huge experience across all areas of the industry – both domestically and globally – is exactly what we need to help us reach the next level. We’ve not announced much of what we’re up next year, but it’s unbelievably exciting, and I can’t wait to see what Ben brings to the team when he joins next month.”

“Joining Curve very much feels like coming home for me,” adds Ben. “I’ve been lucky enough to work at some fantastic companies during my career – but my passion is for marketing games, and Curve’s portfolio and forthcoming slate really excites me. Whilst I’m sad to be leaving McLaren and the esports team, the opportunity to join such an exciting games publisher proved irresistible. I can’t wait to get started.”